Introduction and guidance
This free course will give you a better understanding of how algebra, scientific notation and trigonometry is used in science, and the world around us.
After studying this course, you should be able to:
- understand the SI system of measurements, scientific notation and significant figures
- understand basic algebra and solve maths equations
- apply the basic functions in trigonometry
- calculate probability of an outcome, the mean, mode, median and standard deviation for a set of data
- gain an understanding of logarithms.
Moving around the course
In the ‘Summary’ at the end of each week, you will find a link to the next week. If at any time you want to return to the start of the course, click on ‘Course content’. From here you can navigate to any part of the course. Alternatively, use the week links at the top of every page of the course.
It’s also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from without having to use the back button on your browser.
The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.